Catch You On The Flip Side
by OpportuneMoment
Summary: Carter, whilst experimenting with materials gathered from an alien world finds an ancient coin which triggers a spontaneous OBE. Problem is, she can’t end it. **COMPLETE AT LAST!**
1. First Flight

**__**

Catch you on the flip side

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Author: Gillian Slater

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E-mail: LeoricGS@aol.com

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Rating: PG -13

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Teaser: Carter, whilst experimenting with materials gathered from an alien world finds an ancient coin which triggers a spontaneous OBE. Problem is, she can't end it.

****

Disclaimer: As always, these characters do not belong to me, they are the property of the show's creators, and I'm borrowing them for my own sinister purposes...

****

Part One

"Oh, come on, Carter!"

"I'm sorry sir, I'm just a little…"

"Obsessed? Agoraphobic? Workaholic?"

"Well…"

"I give up. If anybody needs me, I'll be in Minnesota."

Major Sam Carter smiled at the retreating from of Colonel O'Neill. The man definitely loved his fishing. Sam, on the other hand, was entirely too enthralled by her Naquida-powered electron microscope. Both had tried repeatedly and without success to introduce the other to the delights of their respective hobbies, and they knew each other well enough to see the futility of the argument. Still, over the many months they'd been working together, the argument had become an end in itself. It just wouldn't feel right if the Colonel didn't enthuse about the size of Minnesota bass for at least a half hour.

It wasn't as though she hadn't considered it. On the contrary, not a leave of absence went by when she didn't regret once again talking herself, as well as Colonel O'Neill, out of his proposed fishing trip, and despite her assertions, it wasn't only the allure of her experiments that kept her from joining him, but that ever-vigilant inner voice of caution. 

There was simply too much at stake, especially now. Now, when, however briefly, they had acknowledged that there was more than friendship between them. It had been mutually agreed upon that the truth was not to go beyond the few who witnessed the admission necessitated by a cruel Goa'uld trick. It was lucky General Hammond wasn't around to see the second wave of Zatark testing, otherwise the two of them would be reassigned by now. So, it was consigned to the realms of conveniently forgotten truths, things best left unsaid, and, Sam's military-bred caution advised her, who knew how many taboo subjects were likely to be broached during a week's vacation alone together? 

Still, these sound reasons didn't stop the same feeling of regret every time the Colonel threw up his hands in despair and disappeared off in search of his fishing hat. Once, just once Carter wished she could find the courage to say, "Sure, I'd love to." She'd never visited Minnesota anyway.

Obviously, there was no chance that it would work the other way around, or at least, not for more than ten minutes. On the rare occasions that the Colonel did decide to take a general interest in Carter's experiments, a few choice scientific phrases would usually send him running for cover. If the truth were known, O'Neill's intense technophobia was more endearing than she let on.

"Something wrong?" Daniel's polite inquiry startled her from her thoughts and she turned to her teammate with a puzzled expression. "You've… been staring down that corridor for a while now, I was just wondering if there was some kind of alien that's only visible to you or… something."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Sam smiled ironically.

"So, are you off home, or…?"

"No, I'm sticking around here for a while. Experiments, you know."

Daniel gave a knowing grin. He was one of the only people she knew who understood the allure of in-depth study. She couldn't count how many times she'd looked in on his tiny office to find him engrossed in some ancient manuscript or stone tablet in need of translation.

"Well, I guess I'll see you in a week then." He paused, as though trying to contain his excitement and then finally failing. "There's a dig out near Saqqara and the head of the expedition's a friend so…"

"Have fun." Sam clapped him on the shoulder fondly and watched as he almost bounced away down the corridor.

Suddenly struck with Daniel's infectious eagerness, she headed quickly towards the lab, where her new toy sat covered with a sheet, waiting for her to unwrap it. She felt like a giddy child on Christmas morning as she plucked off the sheet and gazed at the microscope in awe, enjoying the way the light from her desk lamp glinted off its smooth steel shaft, forming a little starburst shape on the lens. Beautiful.

Tearing her eyes away from it, she went to the metal cabinet in the corner and retrieved a tray of Daniel's geological samples and artefacts taken from an earlier mission. It was more than likely that each was exactly what it appeared to be, but she reasoned that the new microscope could make even the dullest rock reveal splendour at the molecular level.

The first was easy: malachite. Not an uncommon substance by any means, but certainly uncommonly beautiful when seen at 500,000 times magnification. More rocks were examined and found to be quite unremarkable, not that this dulled Sam's enthusiasm. She was fairly certain there were enough uncatalogued specimens knocking around the lower levels of the SGC to keep her occupied for a week... Minutes gave way to hours as she picked her way through several trays of samples.

Days later, and her honeymoon period with her new microscope had come to an end, moving instead into the kind of partnership she was sure would last a lifetime. A spectacular piece of machinery, always there for her when she needed it, when a mountain of unexciting paperwork threatened to spoil her precious week's vacation away from the field. 

It seemed she had barely left her lab in the past few days, and by now she was really having to hunt for interesting things to examine and document. Her search had taken her into Daniel's private cabinet, which the absent-minded archaeologist had left unlocked. She ferreted around with the utmost respect for her friend's treasures until one artefact caught her eye in particular, though she did not know why. It was a small coin covered with intricate, unrecognisable markings. Of course, it was perfectly possible that the long-dead race who had inhabited P3X-663 were civilised enough to have developed a system of currency. Nonetheless, the coin intrigued her. Under her naquida-microscope the bluish metal seemed to glow invitingly and the inscription was obviously precision-cut with a laser. Taking it from the slide, she held it close to her face and scrutinised the illegible symbols, absently wishing Daniel was around to translate them.

And no sooner had the thought entered her brain than the coin seemed to heat up in her hand. She would have dropped it, except that she was inexplicably no longer connected to her body.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Looking down on herself from somewhere above, her first panicked thought was that whatever the coin had done to her had been fatal. Pulled from her earthly form, she would no doubt be winging her way to the unknown hereafter in no time. As if in confirmation of her fears she rose higher, through the very rock of the Cheyenne Mountain complex and soared above it.

The entity that was Sam Carter flew over the surrounding countryside, gradually gaining speed, reaching the coast and leaving the continent of her birth. Soaring out over the sea, Sam began to redress her all-consuming fears of death. This wasn't so bad, after all. It was quite kind of God to give her a tour of her planet before she left it, and it was truly breathtaking. She'd flown plenty of helicopter and jet-plane missions in her career, but nothing compared to this.

As what she could only describe as her soul neared the African continent, she began to slow down and sink lower, confusing her still further. _Heaven's in Egypt?_

In a flash of inspiration, then, the answer came to her, and was all at once relieving and frightening. All this had started when, holding the alien coin, she had thought of Daniel. Somehow the artefact had sent her mind off to find him at his archaeological dig in Saqqara. She wasn't dead after all, a piece of knowledge which was immensely satisfying to her. However, her mind _was_ separated from her body, which was obviously still back at the SGC holding that damned coin.

She was just a few hundred feet up now, and gliding over Egypt's sandy terrain towards the famous step-pyramids which dominated the horizon impressively. Beyond the pyramids she could make out a number of tents with galabia-clad natives scurrying to and fro between them.

Finally her vision fell on a small desk planted just outside the largest tent. Daniel sat with his back to the floating Sam, deeply absorbed in the papyrus scrolls unfurled across the desk. Another man approached him, then, and the two of them scrutinised the parchments together.

__

Daniel**!?** Sam called in his general direction, but her voice sounded only in her own mind. Great. She'd come all the way to Egypt in some kind of astral projection and she couldn't even talk to her friend. Somehow she manoeuvred her way around the front of the desk and floated directly before him, looking intently into his eyes. He looked up from his parchment suddenly and shuddered.

"Y'alright?" asked the man next to him. Daniel's expression seemed somewhat distant as he replied.

"Yeah, I… I think someone just walked over my grave."

"Ugh, I hate that. Happens all the time. Could be the curse, you never know…" A grin of skeptical amusement passed between them.

"Yeah, right. Err, could you give me a minute? I have to… call someone."

The man nodded amicably and strode off towards another tent. Reaching into his jacket, Daniel brought out his mobile and scrolled through the numbers. Sam watched in amazement as he dialled her number and listened, obviously to no avail. It infuriated her to know that back in the lab her phone was ringing insistently while she was disembodied out here. Still, she was pleased to have affected some reaction in her friend.

After about fifteen rings, Daniel hit cancel and pocketed his phone, his eyebrows drawn into a frown. He brooded for a minute or two on the subject, then shook himself purposefully from his confusion and focused once more on his task.

Sam considered trying the distraction trick on him again, but quickly decided against it, after all, there was no way she could tell him anything in this state. No, she needed to get back to her body, for as liberating an experience as it had been, freeing her mind from all constraints of the physical world, it was also more than a little disconcerting that she was not the pilot on this particular flight.

Once again she felt herself begin to rise up and move away from the dig area, climbing into the cloudless stratosphere over North Africa.

Sam wondered if she could, in fact, control this bizarre out-of-body experience by directing her thoughts towards a specific location. Experimentally, she formed a picture of Cheyenne Mountain in her mind and felt a glow of satisfaction when her consciousness began to move out over the ocean in the right direction.

Speeding over the vast Atlantic, Sam was sure she could smell the salty air and feel the wind in her face, even though her face was, in fact, some 30 floors underground in the SGC. She imagined her body sitting there, entranced by the alien artefact in her hand. She would have some very choice things to say to that coin when she got back.

Sam's efficient mind began to catalogue the things she would do once returned to her rightful plane of existence. Putting the coin into an extremely secure safe would have to be the first, and no doubt Janet would want to check her over to ensure that no damage had come to SG-1's second in command whilst she was… sitting immobile at a desk.

Descending through the dense rock of the compound, Sam flew through the corridors like a spectre, only to find herself not in the lab, but in the infirmary, where Janet was typing up her reports. _ Of course, Janet._ Sam had casually thought of Dr. Frasier and so her anonymous tour-guide had obligingly delivered her to the person in question.

A little peeved at the misdirection, Sam made a mental note not to think unduly of any of her acquaintances, a caution which unfortunately fell on deaf ears almost as soon as it was formed, for in trying not to think of anyone in particular, the image of Colonel O'Neill's face leaped unbidden to her mind's eye. Her consciousness literally went through the roof.

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I guess I'm going to see Minnesota after all.

****

End of Part One


	2. A Visit To Minnesota

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Catch you on the flip side

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Author: Gillian Slater

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E-mail: LeoricGS@aol.com

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Rating: PG -13

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Teaser: Carter, whilst experimenting with materials gathered from an alien world finds an ancient coin which triggers a spontaneous OBE. Problem is, she can't end it.

****

Disclaimer: As always, these characters do not belong to me, they are the property of the show's creators, and I'm borrowing them for my own sinister purposes...

****

Part Two

Not a bite. Not even a ripple. Jack knew his game was up. Yes indeed, the few surly bass he was certain still inhabited the lake had caught on quickly this year. Well, he'd just have to try some new field tactics he'd been perfecting. He fingered the grenade at his belt with a sly grin.

A vague whisper through the trees caught his attention briefly, and a breeze ruffled the brim of his fishing hat, threatening to lift it right off his head. Jack anchored his hat with one hand, setting his rod carefully onto its stand with the other.

Turning, he started back up the bank, peering suspiciously around. His military poker-face was immediately back in place, Sam noted, her ethereal consciousness floating a few paces behind him. He probably expected to be ambushed any second, it was just like the Colonel, although admittedly his unfailing attention to detail and uncanny ability to pre-empt a surprise attack were properties that had made him the only man in the world fit to lead SG-1. 

__

I know you can't hear me, sir, but if you could just call up General Hammond and ask him to go check on me…

"I know you're here!" Colonel O'Neill called out in an authoritative voice, "So you can just come on out and we'll either talk it through peacefully or… not." He continued to scan the surrounding vegetation for any signs of movement, pulling a pistol from the waistband of his jeans.

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Thanks anyway, but I'd rather you didn't shoot me, sir.

Jack fell silent, listening so intently that when the sudden, shrill tones of his cellphone's jingle pierced the idyllic calm of the lakeside he leaped a good foot into the air. Sam could barely contain her amusement as the Colonel tucked his pistol back into his pants and seized his phone, cursing bitterly.

"What!?" he barked, his hand moving to his forehead in exasperation. "Oh, hi Daniel." He lowered his tone, curbing the tirade he obviously had planned for the person who had startled him. "What's up?"

Sam watched as he paced around his immediate vicinity. She desperately wished she could hear the other end of the conversation.

"Aw, you know Carter, Daniel. She's probably too wrapped up in her experiments to even hear her phone. Well, I'll try her on mine and get back to you, okay?" He pressed the button ending the call, then tapped in the digits of Sam's number and waited for the ring.

"Come on, Carter. Pick up, pick up… Oh, where the hell are you?"

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I'm right here. Sam pointed out in a defeated voice. O'Neill whirled about to face her.

"Who was that? Who's there?" he demanded. Stunned, the invisible mind of Samantha Carter moved in closer to the Colonel.

__

You… you heard me?

"Yeah… err, I'm officially confused here. Care to let me in on the joke?"

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It's me, sir, Carter. I'm… having an OBE.

"All right, all right, don't rub it in. I got qualifications of my own y'know…" The being that was Carter chuckled.

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No I mean an out-of-body experience. My consciousness is here while my actual self is back at the SGC.

"And you did this _why_?"

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I didn't do it, sir, it was done to me.

"By whom?"

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Not who, sir, what. You remember that naquida-microscope?

"You're telling me a microscope did this?"

__

No, sir, the thing I was looking at with the 'scope: some sort of coin Daniel picked _up from P3X-663. I've figured out that it takes my consciousness to the presence of any person I actively think about._

Jack's forehead furrowed in thought briefly, then smoothed as a lopsided grin spread across his face.

"Thinking about me again, huh?"

__

Argh! Sir, I just…

"Calm down, Carter, it's called teasing, and it's commanding officer's prerogative."

Sam was glad that the Colonel couldn't see her face at that moment, since she was positive that it would be flushed with the embarrassed heat she felt, even in her lack of physical presence.

"So…" O'Neill continued, the gentle smile remaining, "How do you reverse this… OHP thingamajig?"

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OBE, Carter corrected, _ I don't know sir. My physical self is still back in the lab. I was hoping maybe you could call someone at headquarters and get them to... slap me or something._

"Seriously? Damn, I wish I could be there to see that." His boyish grin widened as he took out his cell phone again.

"Hi, can you get me Dr. Frasier? Hi, Janet. Listen, could you find Major Carter?"

The conversation began to fade from Sam's mind as her presence rose above the small patch of Minnesota the Colonel loved so well.

__

Colonel, it's working… I'm going back.

Jack paused and glanced up towards Carter's retreating voice. He raised his hand in a wave. "Right behind you, Major."

****

End of Part Two


	3. Terra Firma Again

**__**

Catch you on the flip side

__

Author: Gillian Slater

****

E-mail: LeoricGS@aol.com

****

Rating: PG -13

****

Teaser: Carter, whilst experimenting with materials gathered from an alien world finds an ancient coin which triggers a spontaneous OBE. Problem is, she can't end it.

****

Disclaimer: As always, these characters do not belong to me, they are the property of the show's creators, and I'm borrowing them for my own sinister purposes...

****

Part Three

The uniform grey corridors of the SGC had never looked so welcoming to Sam, even though her breathtaking flight over the countryside back to Cheyenne had left her with a sharp pang of regret to be underground again.

Her consciousness flew unerringly towards the lab this time, and she slid in above the heads of the two soldiers standing guard and settled over the desk at which her physical form still sat. The bright beam of Janet's opthalmascope shone into her vacant eyes, and the concern in the doctor's voice was mirrored in the face of General Hammond, who paced around the lab hurling question after unanswerable question at the gathered medical personnel.

__

Janet? General Hammond? She called hopefully. No response, not even a glance in her direction. The colonel had been able to hear, so why couldn't they? Just one more mystery she'd have to solve once the initial problem of being disembodied was rectified.

It was generally agreed upon by the base's medical staff that Major Carter should be removed to the more controlled environment of the infirmary in an attempt to ascertain the cause of her trance-like state.

Realising the futility of protest, Sam's consciousness followed the party into the infirmary and observed their efforts with interest, absently making inaudible suggestions as the investigation proceeded.

It was around 9pm when Jack burst in, cursing the traffic and quickly informed all present of his conversation with Sam's astral representation, except that he described the situation in somewhat more colloquial terms, referring to her as 'ghost Carter'.

__

I'm not dead, sir. Sam retorted. For the second time that day, Jack leaped a foot into the air. Sam's laughter bubbled in the Colonel's brain.

"Dammit, Carter! If you do that one more time..."

"Colonel?" General Hammond's puzzled tone was accompanied by equally strange looks from around the room, and Jack's own expression quickly mirrored them.

"You guys... didn't hear that?" Blank looks answered. "Carter's right here," he made a circling motion with one raised hand, "Floating or... something."

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I can't figure out why only you can hear me, sir.

"You're telling me that Major Carter's... _presence_ is here in this room?" General Hammond sounded incredulous.

"Well, she didn't hit Minneapolis at rush hour."

"So, you can communicate with her directly?" Janet's forehead creased once more with a puzzled frown.

"Yep. You know Carter - can't shut the woman up at the best of times, but _now_..."

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Hey! Sam retorted indignantly.

Colonel O'Neill grinned in her general direction. Imagining Sam's response, Janet smiled knowingly as she turned to the Colonel.

"Does she have any idea what's going on here? We could really use her input to..." Jack didn't hear the question as a sudden stream of analytical comments flooded his mind.

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA! You wanna give that to me in English?"

__

Just repeat what I say to Janet, all right? Sam requested calmly. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, whatever." He looked towards Carter's body, then to the Doctor. "Oh, she has _input_ all right, just don't ask me to understand it. Okay, Carter..."

Sam, through O'Neill's careful repetition, explained all she knew of the coin's origins on P3X-663, and of the analysis results her powerful microscope had turned up.

"...And she can't figure out why I can hear her." Jack finished. "Well, for once we're in agreement. I mean, why me? You could've at least gotten psychic with someone here at the base but no, you had to come mess up my fishing trip!"

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I'm sure you can throw grenades into a pond some other time, Colonel. Sam commented dryly. He scowled in reply, glancing quickly around before remembering with relief that only he could hear her.

Janet's brow was furrowed in thought and she absently checked Carter's pulse for probably the fiftieth time.

"Colonel, ask Sam to describe _exactly_ the state she was in when she... err, took off. I mean physically, emotionally, every detail."

"Well, you know I really don't need to ask her since she can hear you--" O'Neill's dry comment was cut off by a wave of trepidation from the presence above.

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What's up, Carter? he asked her, for the first time speaking silently to her in his mind.

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I think I know where's Janet's going with this, and...

What?

I don't want a repeat of the Zatark thing.

Realisation dawned on Jack. The doc wanted to know Carter's emotional state at the time... Yeah, this definitely had echoes of before.

__

Seems Frasier'll stop at nothing to 'out' this stuff in front of Hammond, huh?

__

Look, just tell her...

O'Neill once again began to repeat Major Carter's words to the doctor, detailing her encounter with the alien artefact. "...Sitting just as you found her... She says the last thing she remembers thinking is that she wished she had Daniel's help translating it. She's pretty sure the coin just took her where she wanted - to see Daniel."

"And after that?" The General's soft southern tone chimed in.

"Well she looked in on you briefly," he nodded at Janet, "And then, uh, got stuck in Minnesota with me. Guess it's half my fault."

"We'll sort that out later. For now I'm concerned about the effect all this... Out-of-body-ing could have on Sam's mind."

O'Neill couldn't help but smirk. "That a technical term doc?"

She glared daggers at him before turning to the General. "Sir, with your permission I'm going to try to recreate the incident, with Sam's help, and see where that gets us."

General Hammond nodded, adding a cautionary, "No one else is to come into contact with that coin, okay?"

The operation went ahead. Carter's unblinking form was seated back at her desk before her beautiful microscope, and the coin, which had been swiftly quarantined, was placed back in her hand.

__

Okay, Carter, do your thing. Jack sent the thought to her, adding with a sarcastic twitch of the lips, _"There's no place like home. There's no place like home!"_

Sam focused her thoughts, remembering her earlier success in getting herself out of Egypt and back to the SGC. Surely this was just an extrapolation of that. She formed a mental picture of the view she would have from her own two eyes, felt herself descending... 

Her eagle's eye view came abruptly down to human level again and she blacked out. 

She opened her eyes to the blinding light of an opthalmascope and Janet's concerned voice.

"Major? Major, can you hear me?"

"I'm okay, Janet. I'm back in any case. Whoa, what a trip." She scanned the room. Everyone else was gone except for Janet. Off Sam's quizzical look, Janet pre-empted the question.

"He's in the infirmary. I was hoping it was something to do with him that was keeping you out of your head--" she stopped, catching another meaning to what she'd just said and smiling momentarily. "But I was beginning to think you weren't coming back. It's been hours."

Sam still grasped the alien coin in her hand. She took a pair of tweezers and held the artefact up to the light, "What the hell are you?" She asked it absently.

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Later. Right now you should come to the infirmary for a check." Janet's tone automatically held unquestionable authority. As chief medical officer, she could issue a direct order even to General Hammond if necessary. Sam went along without objection, pausing only to drop the troublesome coin into a sterile bag and replace it in the secure cabinet.

Walking through corridors, Sam turned to Janet. "The Colonel's undergoing _tests_ because of me? Oh, he's gonna be seriously pissed--"

She didn't hear the doctor's reply, as instead O'Neill's indignant comment sounded in her mind. _Uh, you could say that._

****

End of Part Three


	4. The Gift

**__**

Catch you on the flip side

__

Author: Gillian Slater

****

E-mail: LeoricGS@aol.com

****

Rating: PG -13

****

Teaser: Carter, whilst experimenting with materials gathered from an alien world finds an ancient coin which triggers a spontaneous OBE. Problem is, she can't end it.

****

Disclaimer: As always, these characters do not belong to me, they are the property of the show's creators, and I'm borrowing them for my own sinister purposes...

****

Part Four

Upon entering the infirmary, she saw that he was already laid on a bed being examined by a medic, a frustrated scowl on his face. He raised his eyebrows in unspoken question as Sam stepped in.

"Really here this time, sir." Carter ran a hand through her unkempt blonde hair as Janet motioned for Sam to take up a similar position in the next bed to Jack's.

"Sooo... have a good vacation?" The Colonel asked in a conversational tone.

"Well, the scenery was pretty great. Honestly, sir, you should've been there. It was 

like… well it _was_ flying. I'm glad to be solid again, though." She paused, brow furrowing and eyes narrowing as she looked curiously at the Colonel.

"You, err... heard my thoughts out there in the corridor just now, didn't you?" He sighed in affirmation.

"Uh-huh."

"But I'm back! I'm right here." Carter seemed quite flustered for once, Jack noted with a half-smile.

"Got that."

Janet, watching the exchange with interest, stepped forwards.

"Major, how about a little experiment to test this... telepathy?"

Sam nodded. "What d'you have in mind?"

* * * *

In the Gate control room, Colonel O'Neill tapped his fingernails on the console, bored. Spinning round in his swivel-chair, he nodded at the white-clad lab tech who stood behind him with a clipboard, scribbling feverishly.

Sam's voice echoed in his mind once more.

__

...Next picture, sir, it's a surveillance shot of P3X-799, with the Goren barracks there.

Jack repeated her details to the doctor in deliberate monotone, adding, "And did I mention this is getting kinda old?"

"Noted, Colonel." The tech commented in a faintly amused tone. "It seems the results are conclusive anyway."

The young man used his radio to confirm the Colonel's 100% accuracy and declared the test ended.

"Finally!" Jack got up and walked purposefully out of the control room with a huff of exasperation.

Back in the briefing room, Samantha sat opposite Janet, Teal'c and General Hammond, a collection of photographs, maps and statistics printouts arrayed before her.

"He's coming back, sir." Carter reported.

"Well, Major, it seems there's no doubt." General Hammond's southern brogue still held the note of quiet wonder it had when the test began. "I'd say SG-1 is going to have a tighter command structure from now on..."

Colonel O'Neill stepped into the room, the traces of frustration still hovering in his eyes as he took a seat next to Carter. _Well, that was the most fun I've had in ages!_ Sam smiled at the sarcasm in his tone.

"Well done, Colonel, Major." The General nodded at each in turn, who responded in kind, even if Jack's acknowledgment was accompanied by an ironic smile.

"Now, obviously investigations into why this happened will be ongoing..." Hammond continued. Sam heard Jack's groan in her mind. "... But I see no reason for this, err, development to keep SG-1 out of the field..." _Yes!_ A glow of relief passed between them. "...You'll all get some rest before your reconnaissance of P5X-245 as scheduled--"

"That's the, er, fifth planet from a binary star, isn't it sir?" Jack cut in quickly, a delicious grin on his face as he watched the wind disappear entirely from Carter's sails. Her eager expression turned quickly to righteous indignation.

"Hey!" She folded her arms and glowered at him. General Hammond and the others looked from Jack to Sam, confused. Then the General began to chuckle, souring Sam's expression further.

The Colonel smiled roguishly at his second-in-command and tapped his forehead. _With you in here, I'll be a lot smarter, that's for sure._

****

End of Part Four


	5. This Bond

**__**

Catch you on the flip side

__

Author: Gillian Slater

****

E-mail: LeoricGS@aol.com

****

Rating: PG -13

****

Teaser: Carter, whilst experimenting with materials gathered from an alien world finds an ancient coin which triggers a spontaneous OBE. Problem is, she can't end it.

****

Disclaimer: As always, these characters do not belong to me, they are the property of the show's creators, and I'm borrowing them for my own sinister purposes...

****

Part Five

It was past midnight when Sam heard a soft knock on the door of her quarters. Half-dozing, she mumbled an invitation and sat up, rubbing her eyes. Considering her lack of physical activity that day she was surprisingly exhausted.

Jack's head appeared round the door. Sam smiled wearily.

"Hey Carter. Message from Daniel, he's on his way."

Sam felt a pang of regret at dragging her friend away from his vacation. She looked at the Colonel's weathered face, reading his hesitant expression like a book.

"You could have told me that from your room, sir." Her gently chiding tone reminded Jack of a school teacher. His face lowered, his looked up with a guilty shrug.

"Yeah..." 

"So, d'you want to tell me what's up or do I have to read your mind?"

Jack stepped in and closed the door. He was uncomfortable. An odd position for a man of his innate confidence and adaptability.

Sam watched his face intently as he moved over to her desk and perched himself on the edge, gazing thoughtfully at the floor.

"What do you think of all this... psychic stuff?"

"It's certainly intriguing."

"Don't you mean _annoying_?"

"Not necessarily, sir... I mean, think about it, we could learn a lot about telepathy..."

"And in the meantime you get to hear everything I'm thinking? I call that unfair."

"Well, it works both ways. You hear my thoughts, too, right?" Her scientific brain began to puzzle over the fact once more. _Wonder if it's a chemical imbalance triggered by the..._

"Oh, yeah. Unmistakably you." He smiled at her, a glint of amusement in his grey eyes, and her musings stopped.

"Look, I know it's going to be a little awkward, but..." A harsh laugh erupted involuntarily from her commanding officer. _You can say that again..._

"We're just going to have to learn to control..."

Jack looked up sharply as a thought which could only have come from Carter echoed through his mind. He couldn't be sure if she'd thought it in his direction on purpose... no, she couldn't have.

"Carter...?" She fought away her embarrassed expression in an instant, forcing a mask of neutrality and started to repeat herself, but the pink heat creeping up her face couldn't be hidden.

"Ahem, I was saying we've gotta--" _God, he didn't hear..._

She looked tentatively up at her CO. He seemed to be holding his breath slightly, as though he'd had a bucket of ice water thrown on him. She watched as he gazed into the space in front of him, his silver-grey eyes a mixture of confusion, wonder and hope.

__

Did she just...? Thought she said it to fool that damn Tok'ra machine, but... damn it, Carter... His gaze slid over to her face, her caught expression...

"Did you mean it?" His eyes were suddenly intense, meeting hers with a questioning need, a demanding depth.

She looked a little lost. _Think straight, think straight..._ She took a deep breath "I..."

__

Want it too. There was an unmistakable huskiness to the tone of Jack's unbidden thought as it sounded in her head, or was it her heart?

"Colonel, we can't let this affect our working relationship."

"Oh, it doesn't have to." His smoky eyes never leaving hers, he sat down next to her on the bed. _It's the other relationship I had in mind._

Carter was acutely aware of his close proximity, and the fact that her fingers had somehow entwined themselves with his. 

__

Oh, this is... "R-relationship? We don't have a..."

Her sentence was finished by the Colonel's voice in her own head even as his lips gently met hers. _We do now._

****

End of Part Five


	6. Team Communications

**__**

Catch you on the flip side

__

Author: Gillian Slater

****

E-mail: LeoricGS@aol.com

****

Rating: PG -13

****

Teaser: Carter, whilst experimenting with materials gathered from an alien world finds an ancient coin which triggers a spontaneous OBE. Problem is, she can't end it.

****

Disclaimer: As always, these characters do not belong to me, they are the property of the show's creators, and I'm borrowing them for my own sinister purposes...

****

Part Six

Jack sat comfortably on the sloping ground of a grassy hill, eyes distant as he stared off into a wooded area before him. Sam's tone in his head was orderly and intelligent as she reported in.

__

...And there's no traces of naquida in the soil, other than the little patch around the Gate.

__

So, it's a yellow-tag and forget about it kinda place. Right, move out.

"Er, Jack?"

Daniel's politely hesitant tone made him whirl his head around in surprise. "Yeah?" He looked at the collection of curiously marked small stone tablets Daniel was pointing out with his pencil.

"Have you even heard a word I've said?" The archaeologist's tone was disappointed as Jack's blank look answered by itself.

"Er, sure, they're a... language, right? Well, bag 'em and let's go, 'cause this place is frankly about as exciting as an extended visit from my father-in-law."

Carter appeared from a stand of mature trees nearby and strode over, instruments in hand. She nodded at Daniel, looking interestedly at his find. She opened her mouth to ask him about them, when the Colonel's dry tone echoed in her mind.

__

They're... ancient writings or something.

__

Ah, Sam nodded, _Fascinating_.

__

Oh, yeah, Jack remarked dryly,_ Hmph, I can't believe there aren't even any Goa'ulds to shoot at, no monsters..._ Sam grinned fondly at his deflated expression. He looked like a boy who'd had his favourite toy taken away.

Daniel looked from her to Colonel O'Neill and back, watching as their silent conversation played out on their faces. He shook his head and gathered his tablets, wrapping each one as though it were utterly precious to him and placing them in a hard sample case.

SG-1 walked through a pleasantly sun-dappled glade toward the creeper-strewn Stargate. Teal'c watched Carter and O'Neill closely as they walked ahead side by side, obviously conversing telepathically. He exchanged a glance with Daniel, who nodded in agreement, then quickened his pace to catch up, clearing his throat loudly.

"Er, guys? Can I talk to you a minute?" They turned, curious.

"'S'up Daniel?" The Colonel enquired nonchalantly. Daniel stared at the ground as he fumbled with the sentence.

"I, ah, just wanted to... well it's kinda useful if you talk to us sometimes, you know?" He looked tentatively at their faces. The military pair looked even more confused, brows furrowed in unison. Teal'c stepped up.

"I believe Daniel Jackson is attempting to express his dissatisfaction at the level of communication within SG-1, with which I concur." His usually solemn expression was a little sour.

"Well, not so much dissatisfaction, as... well, I notice since you two became telepathic, we don't seem to be in the loop any more." Jack started to answer, but Daniel rushed ahead, "I mean, you kinda forget we can't hear you...?"

Sam looked at the Colonel, nodding. "It's true, sir," she said out loud, "We do get carried away." She looked squarely at Daniel, then Teal'c. "Sorry, guys. This thing, it's kinda difficult not to make use of it, but you're right."

__

Nicely done, Carter. Jack nodded his agreement.

"Uh-huh. Thanks for the heads-up. We'll, err, keep the chit-chat to a minimum, and all sit-reps are to be out loud from now on, I swear." Daniel smiled his thanks and Teal'c gave a solemn nod. They resumed their stroll to the Gate, talking openly.

* * * * *

As they stepped through the shimmering event horizon, both Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter clapped their hands to their ears and fell to their knees, shouting, visibly in pain. Teal'c and Daniel rushed to them, but their hurried questions went unheard.

Jack screamed. It felt like a football stadium full of people were all yelling at him, individual voices indistinguishable in the din, and he was sure his head couldn't take the noise much longer. He was going to black out...

Through the deafening roar of a thousand voices, Sam was vaguely aware that one of them was her own, screaming for them to stop, to be quiet, but no one complied. As she began to lose her grip on the here and now, she made out Jack's agonised voice in her mind, his thoughts echoing her own exactly. _What... the... hell... is... happening**?!**_

****

End of Part Six


	7. Many Voices

_**Catch you on the flip side**_

_**Author:** Gillian Slater_

_**Teaser: **Carter, whilst experimenting with materials gathered from an alien world finds an ancient coin which triggers a spontaneous OBE. Problem is, she can't end it._

_**Disclaimer: **As always, these characters do not belong to me, they are the property of the show's creators, and I'm borrowing them for my own sinister purposes..._

_**Author's Note: **Sorry these final chapters have taken so long to complete, almost a year in fact! After finishing my degree I decided to travel the world... It took a while! Anyway, here, at last, is the completed story. Enjoy!_

****

**Part Seven**

Janet swept into the Gate Room within a half-minute of hearing General Hammond's barked command, racing up the approach ramp to pry Daniel and Teal'c away from their writhing comrades.

Stretchers at the ready behind her, she checked their vitals. Pulses racing and breathing shallow, they'd be going into shock at any moment. Both had clamped their hands vice-like over their ears in an obvious attempt to shut out some sound inaudible to everyone else.

_Dammit, _the doctor cursed silently_, I knew this would come back to bite us! _"Let's get them into ICU, now!"

- - - -

"I'm having to increase the dose every hour to keep them sedated," the doctor reported, her concern reflected back at her from the eyes of General Hammond, "And the levels are already getting dangerous."

George took a deep, clearing breath. Why did SG-1 always get themselves into these goddamn situations? He turned to the remaining half of the team, standing so quietly by their friends' bedsides, eyes fixed on him for a decision. He turned back to Dr. Frasier.

"How much longer?"

"Three hours, tops, before they hit the morphine ceiling. After that, they'll start hearing the... voices again."

Teal'c, who had been resolutely silent since O'Neill and Carter fell victim to the strange affliction, turned to Dr. Frasier, his memory suddenly jogged.

"Long ago, Jafa suffered from a similar condition; the Kela'ran--"

"Err... It means 'disquiet mind'" Daniel interjected helpfully before Teal'c continued.

"-- Many warriors were driven mad by the collective memory of the Goa'uld - the voices of millions. This is why Kelnor'rem was first developed, to put them in a meditative state where they were no longer troubled by the information."

He looked at the faces of his suffering human friends, their faces slightly twisted despite the sedation.

"General Hammond, may I suggest that I assist Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter into a Kelnor'rem state?"

The General seized upon the idea immediately. "It's definitely worth a try." He stole a glance at Doctor Frasier, who nodded her approval, "You have a 'go' Teal'c. It'll buy us some time at least. In the meantime," he turned to Dr. Jackson, "I want to know _everything _there is to know about that coin. You've got three hours."

- - - -

It was a good job Daniel had a large desk, as every square inch of it was covered in stone tablet rubbings, computer printouts, ancient scrolls of yellowing parchment, reference books of Latin, cuneiform and his own little Goa'uld dictionary, which he vaguely hoped would one day see it's way into print.

Also before him was Sam's electron microscope, and the alien coin which had an almost luminous quality to its metallic blue surface.

He'd been back to P3X-663 briefly, but his foray only confirmed his own thoroughness as an archaeologist. Every shred of evidence that there was ever a culture on the planet was already documented, all the artefacts already labelled. All that information was spread before him, a puzzle.

Daniel took his eyes from the microscope, blinking. He'd always been more of a magnifying-glass man himself. The civilization who had existed on the planet were deeply religious, so far as his translation of their spidery pictographic writings could tell, and their currency was not for economic use, but ceremonial...

I'm on to something here.

- - - -

"These people believed every coin was imbued with some kind of spirit, or life of its own," Daniel told the General and Dr. Frasier, "Only their religious leaders were permitted to handle them... The carvings have accounts of priests in trances communing with the spirits, speaking with, err, The Voices."

The General thanked Daniel with a nod and turned to Frasier. "Doctor, have you got anything more from the coin?" She nodded.

"Yeah, my analysis ties in with Daniel's findings: the metal seems to have been intentionally combined with another element which has mind-altering properties. The problem is we have no way of knowing whether the effects are permanent, or what would prevent them." She looked back at the monitor on which rotated a Bohr diagram of the metal's molecular structure.

"General, I don't think, given the level of technology this civilisation had, that they could've made these coins themselves."

"The Ancients?" Hammond suggested.

"Looks that way," replied Daniel, "Or another race on a par with them."

- - - -

The ICU was in near-darkness, punctuated only by the guttering flames of tiny candles. Tendrils of smoke curled from the incense-sticks placed around the room.

Sam and Jack reclined almost upright in their beds, with Teal'c sat cross-legged on a table between them. The Jafa felt strangely calm in the face of what was to be not only his first Kelnor'rem in almost a year, but also his first attempt at including two semi-conscious Tau'ri into the ritual.

He began his mantra, having explained slowly and clearly to his colleagues that they were to follow the chant, at least in their minds if they could not do so aloud. After a time they would fall silent, to allow the emptiness into their minds and wipe away the cries of voices from eons ago. The Goa'uld, Teal'c knew, were not always such an amoral race, and what had cried in his mind before he lost his symbiote, was the collective guilt of the First Ones, begging forgiveness for themselves and their descendants - a haunting din which the ritual of Kelnor'rem was created to obliterate, and which deafened the Jafa slaves to the truth about their 'gods'.

The screaming people had not shut up, Jack noticed, but their voices blurred a little after each dose of morphine. It was wearing off again, and the volume was rising steadily. He tried to focus his mind, to tune into the soothing alien words Teal'c repeated beside him. In his mind he also felt Carter's struggle to concentrate. She was managing to say the Jafa mantra to herself, but they were both of them outnumbered by the hundreds, perhaps thousands of long-dead supplicants, all of whom seemed to want the same thing as Jack and Sam did:- peace.

**End of Part Seven**

- - - -


	8. Crazy Scheme

**__**

Catch you on the flip side

****

Part Eight - Crazy Scheme

Hammond stared at the tacky-looking red phone on his desk. He knew that sometime in the next hour he would have to stop procrastinating and pick up that phone, call his boss, _the_ Boss. The President had always taken a keen interest in the Stargate Program, and wished to be kept informed of any developments, including the more domestic concerns of base personnel. More than that, the President was on friendly terms with SG-1, and from what Dr. Frasier had told him, half of the unit was deteriorating rapidly.

Teal'c's Kelnor'rem had lasted several hours, during which, he reported, they had at first shown improvement, and then reverted to their mentally troubled state. Humans, it seems, possess a generally more 'disquiet mind' than Jafa, which means that meditation, however successful, has little lasting effect on the untrained subconscious.

When the General had visited O'Neill and Carter a little over thirty minutes ago, they had both been placed in physical restraints due to their repeated attempts to beat themselves over the head with nearby objects in an attempt to do what Frasier's drugs could not.

He felt helpless. Clueless.

A sudden, impatient rapping on his office door jolted him from his melancholy thoughts.

"Enter," he snapped.

Dr. Jackson virtually bounded into the room, wearing the familiarly animated expression on his face that usually meant he'd made a discovery.

"General, I found it!"

"It?" Hammond prompted, feeling his own tense excitement rise at the prospect of a solution to all this.

"Well, ah, I've been looking into the history of the Dionen--" he hesitated as he saw the General's eyebrows raise in question, "-- It's what I think was the name of the population on P3X-663, so called because they worshipped the god Dionysus, who we know from Greek mythology was..."

Hammond flashed him a get-on-with-it look.

"Moving on, I found another text, this time written in Ancient, which acted as a sort of Rosetta stone for me to understand the rest... including the correct operation of the coin. General, I know why Jack and Sam are going crazy. They used the coin without knowing the proper method, sort of like accessing the internet without anti-virus software."

"You're saying they have a virus?"

"Err, no, I'm saying they were vulnerable to attack. The text talks about the precautions the priests had to take to avoid "becoming many", getting overwhelmed by the voices. They could single out individuals to talk to and return safely into their bodies."

"How will this information help Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter?"

"I'm not sure. But I'm pretty confident I could use the coin properly myself, and go ask someone who could help -- the voices."

"Oh no you don't. There's no way I'm losing another member of SG-1 to that damned artefact!"

"General I can do it! I know exactly what the priests used to do to operate the device. At least let me try!"

George kept his hard gaze on Daniel for several seconds, in his mind steadfastly reaffirming his denial of the idea and at the same time knowing that SG-1's lunatic schemes almost always worked, and it _was_ very probably the only thing which may save Jack and Sam. He looked back at the red phone, wondering if, in the next hour, he was going to have to report the loss of _three_ people to the President.

"Proceed, Dr. Jackson."

- - - - - - - - -

As he stood in the centre of his tiny quarters, his papers, tablet-rubbings and textbooks all around him, with Dr. Frasier and General Hammond standing by and the blue Dionen coin in a steel dish before him, Jackson had to admit to himself that he was scared witless.

He'd been overplaying his confidence in order to get the General's permission, but truth be known he only had his best guess at the translation of the ritual which would hopefully enable him to do what had last been done around 1500 years ago. He fervently hoped this whole thing wouldn't be a spectacular failure resulting in him losing his sanity too. Daniel had a fairly good idea of what it was like to be insane, and after the chaos of the Machello incident he'd been particularly appreciative of his mental faculties.

"Whenever you're ready, Dr. Jackson." Janet's voice, though clinical, held an audible touch of concern.

Daniel took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He began to repeat the words of the ancient text, having learned them by heart, and hoping his pronunciation was correct. The translation meant, _'Fathers who live in the middle-world, hear me. Mothers who exist without Time, listen. Children of Dionysus, join me to serve our lord with wisdom.'_

He repeated the foreign words three times, each time dipping his hands into a prepared bowl of yellow-ish solution, which was just sulphur in salt-water. Again, the archaeologist hoped that his translations of the substances were correct. Sulphur was to be found in plentiful supply on P3X-663, giving an attractive yellow tint to the landscape, and there were vast oceans and briny lakes.

Finally, hands dripping, he picked up the coin and concentrated hard on nothing. At this point the knew that thinking of something or someone in particular may ruin the whole thing and send his conscious flying off to visit them. Instead he emptied his usually cacophonic mind and listened.

Standing beside him, Dr. Frasier had taken her eyes away from the monitoring devices to watch Daniel's face intently. She saw the muscles in his face slacken and he swayed backwards, about to fall. Stifling her instinctive exclamation, so as not to break his concentration, she caught him and, as a nurse rushed up to help, they lowered him onto a futon just behind.

In the silence, everyone watched and waited.

****

End of Part Eight


	9. The Ritual

_**Catch you on the flip side**_

**Part Nine - The Ritual**

Words drifted though the haze of his unconscious mind. An unintelligible stream of alien language.

"No," Daniel mumbled vaguely, "I don't understand."

The words changed, still foreign, complex, and yet Daniel found himself knowing their meaning. The voices were angry, accusing, but also curious about him.

As the fog in his mind cleared, he listen to the questions they repeated over and over. _Ancient,_ he realised, _They're speaking Ancient!_

"My name is Daniel Jackson," he replied, grateful for the time he'd spent practising the complicated alien tongue, "I seek guidance."

_You are not worthy._

He was stumped by that. It sounded final.

"Forgive me... I know I am not worthy but this is... an emergency."

_You speak of the tormented ones._

"Yes! They are my friends."

_They abused the Yia Mar. The uninitiated are not to converse with Spirit. They have become many._

"But it was unintentional. They--"

_Of what race are you?_

I am Tau'ri, from Earth."

_How is it that you do not become many? You are not a priest._

"I have acted according to your text, followed the ritual."

_You have great understanding. Your kind must be intelligent._

"We're explorers. We found the... _Yia Mar_ in a deserted city, and took it for study. I'm sorry, we didn't know it was holy, or the consequences of touching it."

No reply. Daniel wondered if whoever he was speaking to was considering their verdict.

A sudden stab of light seared through his brain. Images assailed him, a kaleidoscope of memories; people, places, alien races he'd encountered on his many journeys through the Stargate. Languages bubbled through his mind, a stream of blended Arabic, Goa'uld, Hebrew, Abydonian, Latin... More voices joined in, speaking words he didn't understand, but could somehow feel the meaning.

He was on his knees in the darkness, hands holding his head, and with the weight of a thousand voices crushing him he knew he had been found guilty, and that he had failed to save his friends, as well as himself.

The same Voice he had been conversing with spoke amid the din.

_How many do you hear?_

"Aaaarrrgghh-- hundreds, thousands!"

_You hear all of us. The Children of Dionysus have passed from the physical world. Every one._

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry--"

_You did not kill us._ The Voice sounded casual, unconcerned by Daniel's pain. _It was time to move on... but we could not. The Yia Mar was to be purged, to allow the connection to be severed so we can move into the realm of our God. The last one to pass over did not do this._

Daniel felt a torrent of sadness he was sure didn't come from himself. The souls of the Dionen people cried out, imprisoned, denied heaven...

_You are now become many, only for a moment. This is what it is for all of us, eternally._

The din died down, as though the crying multitude stepped away to allow the single Voice centre stage.

_You can end this._

The pain that Daniel had felt for just a minute... He could hardly imagine what state Jack and Sam were in after experiencing that for twelve hours, but 1500 years! Anything he could do to stop that much suffering...

"How?"

_The Yia Mar must be purged. Only a priest can do this. Your thoughts and memories are known to us. You have travelled through the Circle many times, and known the Gods. Even though you do not serve our Lord, you are a priest of your people. It is enough. We ask you to give the Yia Mar back to the stars._

"Send it into space?"

_Into the stars._

"You mean destroy it."

_It cannot be destroyed. Once it is purged, we will become one with our God Dionysus, we will know peace, and we bequeath the Yia Mar to your kind. Use it however best serves your Lord._

"I promise I will do this. What about my friends?"

_They will hear us no more._

Daniel breathed a huge sigh of relief. Once the voices were gone, they should hopefully recover.

"Thank you."

_We are grateful to you, Daniel Jackson._

The cavernous darkness he seemed to be in grew lighter, and shapes began to appear out of the blackness. Slowly the indistinct blurs became people, who stepped forward to form a circle around him. A hauntingly beautiful, ethereal-looking race, each face with a gentle smile of gratitude.

- - - - - - - - -

"--looks like something went right," Daniel heard General Hammond's voice as if from a distance as he slowly drifted back to consciousness. He knew he must have been smiling.

"Dr. Jackson?" Janet shook him gently. Daniel sat up, looking from the doctor's concerned face to General Hammond's, and then down at the coin, the _Yia Mar_, in his hands.

"General, we're going to need the X-303."

**End of Part Nine**


	10. To Bring Peace

_**Catch you on the flip side**_

**Part Ten - To Bring Peace**

The vast starry expanse of the galaxy spread out before him, filling the huge window of the X-303. Below, the planet of the long-dead Dionens spun, wild and uninhabited. P3X-663 was comparatively close to Earth, and it had taken just a few days to reach it by Asgard-modified space-plane.

Jack and Sam were in their beds in the ship's tiny infirmary, attended by Dr. Frasier, and the knot in Daniel's stomach tightened as he waited for the technician advise him that their latest wild plan could go ahead.

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c deep voice was distorted by the crackling intercom, "Everything is ready. I will join you on the bridge."

Minutes later, Teal'c stood beside Daniel as they listened to Hammond's 'proceed' order from the SGC and launched the jerry-rigged 'homing-pigeon-pod'; a tough, pressurised container which would survive deep space long enough to get the coin to the tiny dwarf star which glowed about a quarter million miles away.

On the monitor, they watched the pod's surface temperature increase rapidly. "Okay, it's starting to melt..." the tech beside them reported, "I've got the location, and... There, the pod has vaporised. There's only the coin left now."

The homing device was designed to emit a signal at the last possible moment which would help them to retrieve the _Yia Mar_ after it had reached the requisite 1,000,000 degrees which Daniel had come up with in his desperate attempt to decide what 'purged' meant in modern-day terms. Ultimately, only Jack and Sam could tell him if he was right.

"Doc?" Daniel radioed the infirmary, "Any change?"

Seconds ticked by... _Come on, come on! _Daniel pleaded silently.

"I think they might be recovering!" Janet's voice was still low, but there was definite optimism there... "Colonel? Major?" Daniel could've sworn he heard the faintest mumbled reply from Jack. "Looks like it worked! You want to come down here?"

"On our way." Daniel turned to the engineer, smiling. The man looked relieved to hear the two members of SG-1 were all right.

"Are you sure you want that thing back, sir?" The tech asked.

"The Dionens left it to us. I think it would be disrespectful to just leave it there, don't you?"

The tech shrugged and flipped the switch to activate the powerful electromagnet which would hopefully attract the floating _Yia Mar_ back to them.

Clapping the man on the shoulder jubilantly, Daniel hurried off to the infirmary with Teal'c following.

- - - - - - - - -

"How are you feeling?" _Stupid question_, Daniel thought, _considering what they've been through in the last day..._

Jack's sly smile was back, if a little weaker than usual. "It's soooo quiet in here." He tapped his forehead, sounding very content. Sam nodded in agreement.

Dr. Frasier, at the Colonel's whispered request, had stopped firing questions and hurriedly performing check-ups. She simply stood to one side, letting them recover in their own time.

Daniel radio clicked, "Dr. Jackson, we've retrieved the coin, sir."

"Thanks, put it back in the jar, err, you know not to touch it?" An affirmative from the other end.

"We _are _planning to destroy that thing, right?" O'Neill exclaimed, the most animated he'd been since waking up. Sam also looked worried.

Daniel sat on a stool and gave them a run-down of how he used the _Yia Mar _to speak to the Dionens, and how they instructed him to 'purge' it in the stars and then use it for their own purposes.

Janet spoke up, then, telling them, or mostly Sam, since the Colonel quickly lost the scientific thread, of the mind-enhancing properties of the metal.

Jack frowned, trying to get his tired mind round the situation. "So, now that it's been wiped or whatever, it's just a coin which makes people read minds?"

"That's my best guess." The doctor replied.

Janet quickly decided that the patients had had enough talk and needed to rest, and she shooed Daniel and Teal'c out, leaving Jack and Sam with the infirmary lights dim.

- - - - - - - - -

Jack dozed, half-conscious in the darkness. He looked across to a dormant monitor, the screensaver of which was a bouncing, tumbling digital clock. It was 3.20am.

In the silence, O'Neill could hear Carter breathing, deep and relaxed. Even through the din of all the voices in his head over the past day, he had been able to make out her thoughts, her tormented cries, and it had been a torture in itself to hear her suffer. Now, at last, she was peaceful, they both were.

He thought of their amazing night together, when they told each other the truth as they could never do out loud. All thanks to the object that had been at once so wonderful and so terrible.

But hadn't the doc said it was cleared of the problem, like a de-bugged hard disk or something? Apparently it might still be able to link two minds together in the way he and Carter had been, but without the side effects.

An idea began to form...

Minutes later, having thrown on the khakis that were folded neatly on a shelf in the infirmary, O'Neill wandered down the bland corridors of the space-place towards the lab. He was surprised he could find it, since it was generally a place he'd avoided, with the possible exception of the occasional trip to see Carter in her natural environment.

With red security lighting giving the place more of an eerie feel that ever, he moved quickly to the only cabinet with a key-pad lock. Tapping in his ID number, the door opened with a pressurised hiss. Jack glanced guiltily around before reaching in and seizing the jar with the coin.

"Ahem."

_Oh-oh,_ He knew that cough. Dammit! He turned, head lowered like a dog who'd been caught chewing someone's best sneakers.

Major Carter looked as dishevelled as he did, wearing only her small green vest over camo-pants, and she was barefoot. She looked from his guilty face to the jar in his hands.

"I wish I thought you had a genuine reason for stealing that, sir." Carter tried to sound authoritative to her superior, but somehow it just came off as teasing. The Colonel lapsed into an impish grin.

"I'm conducting an experiment, Carter, surely _you _can't have a problem with that."

"You're trying to get into my thoughts!" she accused.

"Well we've gotta know if the thing still works, don't we?"

Carter stared hard at him, forcing indignation onto her face when really all she felt was curiosity and excitement, maybe tinged with annoyance that he'd beaten her to it. She let her frown fall, stepping silently closer. She looked from the glinting blue coin to his inviting smile.

"I guess we have to."

The Colonel laughed lightly. "Now, Carter, if I'm gonna concede and do _science_ with you--"

Carter started to interrupt but was cut off.

"-- You have to agree to come fishing, fair?" He opened the jar and tipped the blue coin out onto his hand. He felt a tingling sensation in his palm, a strange clarity in his mind.

"Will there be grenades?"

"Oh yeah."

"Well, as long as we don't let it affect our _working_ relationship..."

Colonel O'Neill extended his hand with the coin, and Carter grasped it firmly.

_Deal._

**The End**


End file.
